Dear Yogis,

Here I am and we are deep into Christmas prep. Not me personally – I don’t do Christmas.  I think it is a device organised by big business to get you to spend money.  So go ahead – spend if it makes you happy.  There are a lot more, longer lasting ways to get happy I have to say.  

Making art makes me happy – and I am pleased to have finished the fungi poster “FABULOUS FUNGI” which will be printed on Thursday.  I will put it on etsy as a printable (ready to frame)  and as a hard copy.

Are you into the Victorian Tree and all the glitter? One of my clients does her house to look like a Christmas card, and it does.  There must be a design plan – every year is more particular, more Hollywood than the last.  It is beautiful, if you like living in a movie set – any minute Jo March is going to walk in the door and call for “Marmee”.  (Maybe like my mum she was waiting for a Royal visit).  Life happens around this very complex Christmas Tableaux.  But as I said.  Not at my place.  I have beautiful free time, almost like Covid, to meet friends who drop in, work in the garden (I have got seeds, mulch and potting mix all ready), write, and of course – DRAW- and go almost nowhere.

 

 

THE BACH FLOWERS

Working on these remedies for persons, animals and plants is taking up all of my head space – although I do have some wonderful new clients thanks to some success. You probably think I have gone nuts, but no, it’s just that the “nuts” is showing.  I have been working on the fringes of Bach Therapies for many years.  I used them mostly for myself, and my household (and plants).  Since I have qualified as a therapist and trainer – Covid gave me the time – I have been doing more and more.

 

I have been getting more deeply into how Bach and yoga fir together (although one never knew the other).  I have written a short course on Bach Therapies , the basics from which you can branch out into other areas….animals, plants.  This CERTIFICATE course is under $55 on Etsy – A Christmas gift to you “THAT KEEPS ON GIVING” www.myyogabooks.etsy.com. It fits really well with CCP if you have done that.

For Bach, the real cause of disease is a distortion of the wavelength in the energy field in the body (the koshas). They slow down, exerting an effect that results in negative states of mind such as worry, fear, anxiety and impatience.  These negative states so deplete the individuals vitality, that the body loses its natural resistance and becomes vulnerable to infection and illness.  Like Hahnemann therefore, Bach believed that the patient should be treated rather than the disease, and the cause rather than the effects.

Hahnemann (the Father of Homeopathy and the man who influenced Bach to pursue Flower Therapies) said:  Disease will never be cured or eradicated by present materialistic methods, for the simple reason that disease in its origin is not material.  What we know as disease is an ultimate result produced in the body, the end products of deep and long acting forces, and even if material treatment alone is apparently successful, this is nothing more than temporary relief unless the real cause has been removed. (1931 p.6.)

Bach’s research led him to conclude that positive, healthy states of mind could be restored by the energies found in flowering trees, plants, bushes and special waters.  He considered his remedies to be a complete system of treatment requiring no “Extension or Alteration”.

LET US ALL BE LIKE THE LOTUS, UNAFFECTED BY THE MUD.  DO THE COURSE!

I will see you on the mat sometime

Namaste – Jahne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seen on Twitter.  “PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT THE COVID VAX WILL CHANGE THEIR GENETIC MAKE-UP, should welcome the opportunity).

Dear Yogis,

In this time of change, “a time of two worlds”, nothing can be more important than meditation.

Even if you feel rested, there is so much anxiety and fear in the air you can’t help but expect some transference.  In this atmosphere, even a night of sleep will not provide the total rest you are looking for.  I know that you may have tried sitting up, but have not been comfortable, and have given in to lying down, next comes the pillow, after that the bolster under the knees and then SLEEP.  It is possible to find rest in a sitting position and a deeper. Children, as in this photograph, take some time to come to sitting meditation – lying down is just fine when they enjoy the time as much as these children do.  Notice a couple of mums with the children (about mid frame).  What a lovely thing, sitting or lying down, meditating together.

Some folk can sit in full lotus, some in half lotus and some in the Japanese way, the knees bent, kneeling, sitting on the legs.  In this position with a cushion under the feet it is  it is possible to sit for a long time… I began doing meditations in this position and find it easier to keep my back straight when kneeling.  The most important thing in lotus or cobbler,  is to bring the hips higher than the knees by sitting on a stool or cushion, the knees on the floor.  In this way, stability is achieved.  In the end, it where the mind is that counts, not where your bottom us, however, undisciplined sitting will not get you far.  (By the way.  This kind of meditation, this depth cannot be achieved gardening, swimming, or walking.  It is different).

Keep your back straight.  I find this difficult, made easier by making it part of the meditation.  Feeling the spine erect, and following the breath.  As for everything else, let it go.  Place your left hand palm side up in your right hand.  Let all the muscles in the arms, legs, fingers, palms – everything let go.  Imagine that you are a water plant gently swaying with the current, the river bed solid beneath you.  Calm.

You can start with three minutes.  A good time span if you are starting with husband and children.  For yourself, work towards 15 minutes.  It is possible to find peace and calm in the position of sitting.  Some people need to visualise and the image of the gentle swaying of the reeds in the stream is a calming one.

Some students look on meditation as WORK and want the three minutes to go as quickly as possible so they can have a rest at the end.  Perhaps they are not comfortable in sitting, don’t have the patience to sit and breathe.  To expand on the visual of the river, as you settle into the meditation you could imagine a pebble or a crystal tossed into a river.  See it gently sinking down, down, down into the water, finally reaching the bottom to the place of perfect rest you are looking for.

The river bed is the beginning, not the goal.  When you have reached the riverbed this is where you BEGIN to find your own rest and are no longer troubled or influenced by the current of the river around you, moving, enjoying, knowing where you are, when you are.  Find joy in the moment.

Joy and peace are available to you in this time of sitting, if you can’t find it here, it is unlikely you will experience it anywhere.  Enlightenment is available to you.

The Zen Master Thuong Chieu wrote: “If the practitioner knows his own mind clearly he will obtain results with little effort.  But if he does not know his own mind, all of his effort will be wasted”.

COMMENTS:  Would you like to chat?  I am listening.  When you need someone in difficult times, when you are troubled, spinning the wheels, or just stuck...I am getting into ZOOMING, I have my “trainer wheels” on, and can take appointments for individual zoom consultations.  If you are interested, email and we can set an appointment time. Mine is a mindful approach which combines Buddhist and Western philosophies and offers practical solutions… yogafirst2@bigpond.com

NAMASTE – JAHNE